June Bird

June
Bird was born in the Utopia region. She lives there with her extended family
including Lindsay Bird. Her themes or stories include bush plum dreaming
and body paint design. The bush plum is a popular variety of bush tucker that
is only found at certain times of the year. It is found throughout most
of the Utopia region where it has declined in abundance due to the grazing
of cattle and rabbits. The bush plum fruits in the summer time after a
fall of rain and is an important food source, even though not all of the
plum is edible. To ensure the fruiting of this plant each season, the aboriginal people pay homage to the spirit of the bush plum by painting about it and in their ceremonies.

The body paint designs vary from ceremony to ceremony and depend on the
subject and the time of year the ceremony is held. Different symbols are
painted on the body and may vary from person to person depending on the
seniority of each member.

Exhibitions
· Works of June have been exhibited in Darwin, Alice Springs and
Adelaide Collections
· National Gallery of Australia, Sydney, Australia
· The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth, Australia
· University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
· Anthropology Museum, St Lucia, USA